Soaking machine employed in making paper



July 10, 1928.

C. T. CROCKER SOAKING MACHINE EMPLOYED IN MAKING PAPER 3 Sheets-Sheet Filed NOV. 30, 1927 w we? :3 zffmehi l, 250% C. T. CROCKER SOAKING MACHINE EMPLOYED IN MAKING PAPER Filed Nov. 50, 1927 s Sheets-Sheet 2 July 10, 1928.

Filed Nov. 30, 1927 3 Sheets-Sheet Patented July 1o, 192a rare was r. caocxnn, or rrrcnnune', massaenusn'rrs.

soaxrne momma madam m a 22'. :I. i PAPER.

Application filed November 80, 192%. Serial No. 236,700.

My inventionrelates to the art of paper making, particularly to that branch of 1t,

wherewith waste paper stock is treated with w mechanical improvements in the soaking machine illustrated and described in U. S. Letters Patent for improvements in the art of paper making, No. 1,326,849, granted to me December 30, 1919. v In the use of this old soaking machine, ieces of metal, such as nuts, washers, wire inders, eyelets, pins and other hard substances become separated from the saturated pieces of paper, settle upon the perforated bottom, catch in the perforations of the false bottom, and remain there until manually removed by rake or shovel, an'operation requiring the non-use of the machine for about one day each week. With the. old machine, the .action of the paper,'mechanical ly moved from the inletend of the machineby duckers, to the discharge-end of the machine, causes the liquid chemical to flow with it, and tends to raise the level of the liquid in the discharge-end of the machine, and to lower it at the inletend; the equalization ofthese levels of this liquid being brought about by the flow of the liquid seeking its own-leveLthrough the perforatedhottomof the machine. In my improved machine, hereinafter described, I haveprovided, in place of the perforated bottom, a solid cast bottom upon which these pieces of metal cannot catch, but

which necessitates means whereby the liquid level at the discharge-end of the machine and the low liquid level at the inlet-end oi the machine, may become substantially ualized. This is accomplished by the sub-' st1tution of what I call open-duckers, for some of the old solid duckers; the action of the open-duckera'so far as the movement of the. paper forward through the machine is concerned, remains the same, the revolvin so. fingers or vanes pushing the aper down an I forward, while t e parts of t e open-duckers allow the liquid chemical to flow back therethrough, and seek and find its own level.

V In short, the main objects of my improvements over the old type of machine are:

pieces. of metal may be removedfrom the permitting the level of the liquid to remain substantially the same both in front of, and

- ing and delivering said pa er and said metal First, to provide a soaking machine that, instead of collecting and removing the metal pieces from the soaking pa er stock, will carry said pieces along wit said soaking stock, and deliver the'same directly to a screen or a washing machine, say that descr1b e l in U. S. Letters Patent No. 1,474,893, and 1ssued November 20, 1923, to Bigelow Cracker, wherein said particles of dirt and B5 soaked p'aperstock, thus doing away with the manual removal of said particles, required by the old soaking machines.

Second, togive the duckers such form and arrangement, that most of the liquid in the receptacle will A be allowed to maintain. a normal level without being pumped through a pipe from the delivering'end of the receptacle to the enterin end. ln the drawings illustrating the principle of my invention, and the best mode now known to me of embodying the same inoperative structure, to attain the objects to said invention, Figs. 1 and 2 show-said structure in elevat1on, two sheets of drawings being; re

quired forthe purpose, and

Fig. 3 1s a longitudinal section of the same; all of these figures being somewhat the ammatic, for the sake of simplicity and an clearness.

'lhis apparatus may, in general terms, be sa d to comprise a receptacle or tank 1 for the reception of a suitable chemical liquid 2; means 3 for feeding paper stock 4 and any afixed pieces of'metal, into the tank; devices 5 and 6 for submerging said pieces of paper and metal, and conveymg the same through the liquor; some of said devices 5 behind-said devices; mechanism 7 for drainpieces to a pipe ading o a washin machine, and means 8 for reclaimingthe lquor. ice

The papers 4, with any pieces of metal there may be 'aflixed thereto, to be treated, I are thrown on to a continuous feed-apron 3, moving over suitable rolls 9, which are operating in a manner well understood, and require no further descri tion, the delivery end of the feed-a ron ing over the receiving end 10 of t e receptacle 1.

Here. are located the submerging devices or duckers 5, for completely immersing the y no pieces of paper delivered'by the feed-apron, and moving them along the solid bottom to I the propelling devices 6. These submergders 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,

a series of six cylin- 16, the first of which 11 receives its power by means of gears 17, 18, operated by a pulley 19 and a belt 20, driven by a main pulley21, and'shaft 22 above thereceptacle. A chain 23 transmlts the motion of rotation from the first to the other cylinders by means of idle sprocket wheels 24 connected with the cylinders 11 to 16 inclusive. The main sprocket wheels ing devices consist of vary insize, as indicated, hence the cylin- [ders rotate at obviously different speeds.

Each of the first two cylinders '11 and 12 comprises a shaft 26 and "a plurality of abutting submerged into theliquor.

The remaining four cylinders 13,14, 15 and 16, differ in structure from the first two 'just described, only in the fact that the hubsare'separated from each other, and allow the liquor to move between them, in its attempt to stand at the; same level on either side of each cylinder, whereas with the first two the liquor has to pass under the hubs rather than between them.

I have found rangement .of the vanes indicated in the drawings operatesuccessfully The papers 4 supplied, as above stated, from the feed-apron 3, fall onto the first cylinder 11, the'rotationpf which forceseach piece of -paper down through the liquor and on to the solid bottom 29, and forward into position to be acted upon by the vanes of the next succeedin cyl1nder12. These vanes then engage t e papers, and positively force each piece under the surface of the liquor so that each piece is thoroughly immersed more than once, before itreaches the remaining submerging d ices 13, 14, 15

and 16,,it being noted also that these radial vanes push forward the mass'of papers as well as the liquor in which theyiare immersed, the level of the liquor in front of each of the two cylinders 11 and "-12 being a little higher than that behind. I L

It is at this stage of the process .that

- pieces of metal affixed to the pieces of waste a paper begin to become separated from the saturated papers,- by the agitation brought about by the vanes; the metal pieces collecting under the submerging cylinders on v rake 30 supported upon bottom .29; and the abutting that the number 'and arthe imperforate bottom, but being forced and carried along with the mass of saturated pieces of aper.

From t ese two submerging cylinders 11 and 12, the papers and metal pieces are taken by the remaining cylinders 13, 14, 1'5 and 16, and likewise pushed forward along the solid bottom to the propelling mechanism 6. The chemical liquor, due to the open type construction of the new duckers 14, 15 and 16, is allowed to flow back over the top of. the submerged papers, to the inlet end of the machine, through the separated hubs of the duckers.

The propelling mechanism 6 comprises a uprights 31 on the top of the receptacle. These uprights are provided with shafts 32 having weighted arms 33 with depending links 34, to which the rake 30 is pivotally connected through shafts 35 transversethe rake. These arms 33 are connected bya. horizontal rod 36 so that there may be a parallel motion for raising and lowering one end of the rake in accordance with the motion of the other end.-

To move the rake longitudinally,.the following mechanism is used: power is transmitted by the main power shaft 22 and the belt 37 through a pulley 38 having a gear- 39 meshing with a gear-40, on which is an eccentric 41 supporting a. roller 42 that, in

turn, is on a supporting bar 43, one end portion being pivoted to the rake, while the other end portion is slotted vertically by the receptionof a crank pin 44 'on the gear wheel '40. The roller and eccentric are thus adaptedtoraise 'and lower the rake. To

move it longitudinally. a, connecting rod 45 is provided and. pivotally connected to the rake and to the supporting vbar 43. Ob-,- viously by means crank, the connecting mechanism will cause the entire rake and teeth to have an ellipof the eccentricand the tical motion for submerging and moving the pieces of paper, while they are -sub merged, forward through the liquor and along the solid bottom of the receptacle. From the propelling mechanism 6, the saturated paper and all foreign matter mixed with them, are seized by a vibrating dofi'er take 46, for the purpose of delivering them to a dis'charge'pipe 47 leading to a washing 1 machine. (not shown)." This rake is operated by a crank shaft 48, the frame 49 of the rake being extended and f0 ming a cam surface 50 to move over a ro ler 51 on a support 52 fixed to a standard 53.

Extending upwardly from the imperforate bottom" 29 and over the depression 54 at the delivery end 55 of the tank, is an inclined imperforate surface 56 and a perforated surface 57 along which the teeth of the rake are adapted to work; the cam surface, the positlon of the roller, and the length of the tank,

all being so designed that the teeth may take the desired path parallel with the inclined perforated bottom, during the upward and outward movement of the rake, and a horizontal, rearward, and downward motion during the return of the rake.

Across one row of the teeth, there is a wooden blade 58, the bottom edge of' which lies just above the plane of the roller teeth. I find that this prevents any possible damage being done by the teeth accidently engaging the upwardly inclined surface of the perforated bottom. The power to rotate the crank shaft 59 is derived through a train of gears, 60, 61, 40, driven by gear 39.

It will be seen that the teeth of the rake thus hoe the saturated pieces of paper, and the pieces of foreign matter, up and over the upwardly inclined imperforate and perforate surfaces 56, .57, the liquid chemical draining off through the latter into a separate depression 54, as shown, thence flowing through an overflow 62 to a pipe 63 and a pump 64, to be returned with any excess overflow through the overflow 65 t0 the receiving end of the tank. The stock at this point flows over a lip 66, into a receptacle 67 where fresh water is added through a pipe '68, so that it will freely flow through pipe 47, and on to a washing apparatus below, but not shown, and forming no part of my invention.

The chemical liquor may be supplied through feed-pipes, as 69. I To drain the liquor from the main receptacle, when necessary, an outlet plate 70, removably secured in the side of the tank, is provided, and, when removed, allows the liquor to flew out 71 beneath the tank.

The principal objects of my invention have now been obtained, namely, the avoidanceof the necessity of manual removal of pins, clips, fasteners and other metallic objects which cling to the perforated bottom, this foreign material now being passed along with the soaking papers; and the maintenance of a substantially uniform level of the chemical liquid in the soaking tank, by allowing the liquor to move quite freely from the delivery-end to the enteringend of the receptacle. 4

Having described the structure and operation of my invention and desiring to protect my invention in the broadest manner legally possible, what I claim is 1. In a soaking machine, a tank having an imperforate bottom, to hold a chemical liquor; a series of duckers to completely said stock with fresh and drop into a drainstock along the bottom; other duckers, to move said stock further along said bottom, said duckers being formed to allow the liquor in the tank to find and keep its own level; means to rotate all of said duckers.

2. In a soaking machine, a tank having an imperforate bottom, to hold a chemical liquor; a series of duckers'to completely immerse, in said liquor, paper stock at the receiving end of the tank, and move the stock along the bottom; other duckers, to move said stock further along said bottom, said duckers being formed to allow the liquor in the tank to find and keep its own level; means to rotate all of said duckers; and means to a. withdraw and drain said stock from said tank, and deliver the same for the purpose of washing.

3. In a soaking machine, a tank having an imperforate bottom, to hold a chemical liquor; a series of duckers to completely immerse, in said liquor, paper stock at the receiving end of the tank, and move the stock along the bottom; other duckers, to

means to withdraw and drain said stock from said tank, and deliver the same for the purpose of washing; and means to-spray water while being delivered from said machine.

4. In a soaking machine, a tank having an imperforate bottom, to hold a chemical liquor; a series of duckers to completely immerse, in said li uor, paper stock 'at the receiving end of t e ta and move the stock along the bottom; other duckers, to move said stock further along said bottom, saidduckers being formed to allow the liquor in the tank to find and keep its own level; means to rotate'all of said duckers; a drain tank; means to withdraw and drain said stock from said tank,and deliver the same for the purpose of washing; overflows from said tank, and drain tank, to receive excess of chemical liquor from said tanks; and a pump to force said excess into the receiving end of the tank.

5. In a soaking machine for paper stock, a soaking tank; a ducker, to move paper stock along the bottom of the soaking tank, allow the liquor, which is pushed ahead of the stock by the ducker, to flow back through the ducker, and maintain a substantially uniform level, both in front and behind the ducker, and means to rotate the ducker.

In testimony whereof I hereunto afix my signature.

CHARLES T. CROOKER. 

